I smile every time I remember how my three year old daughter reacted when she saw stuffed cabbage on the Christmas table and screamed ‘YUCKY’. However, after she tried it she realized how delicious it was. Ever since then she makes sure that it is on the Christmas menu every year.
Stuffed cabbage is a popular winter dish in Hungary even though our ancestors didn’t make it. It is a dish that was inspired by the Turks and we started making it only after the Turkish invasion, in the 1600’s. They called it szárma from the Turkish word sarmak. However, many of us today can’t imagine Christmas without it. My mom made it every year.
I don’t think it is an accident that stuffed cabbage is a Christmas dish. You can surely serve it any time of the year but it is the perfect dish for the holidays. In the old days, families butchered their pigs and the meat was ready to be used by around this time. Also, there weren’t too many vegetables available except for a few like cabbage and onions. Not to mention that the dish can be kept in the cold for a couple of days. In fact, it tastes the best after a few days. This was an important consideration because Christmas went on for days back in the old times and according to traditional customs, women were not allowed to work during the celebrations.
The recipe is not too difficult, though it is a bit time-consuming. Just remember you won’t have to cook for 3 days afterwards! There are many variations of this recipe but this is how I make it. Please feel free to experiment with it.
What you need
Meat stock:
- 1 -2 lb of beef bones (ox tail and beef bone)
- 2-3 Tbsp of black pepper corn. I like to add a lot of peppercorns because they give a really nice flavor to the dish. I used to add them to the pot with the stuffed cabbage. This is a minor correction to the original recipe because people were complaining that they were biting on the peppercorns regularly when they were eating the cabbages. This way, people can enjoy the the nice flavor but they don’t have to bite on the pepper corns. Of course, you can grind fresh peppercorn on the dish when serving too.
- 4 bay leaves
- carrots
- turnips, rutabaga (optional)
- garlic
- 1 large onion
- few cloves of garlic
- 1 celery stalk or the root
For the cabbage rolls:
- high quality oil (lard, sunflower seed oil)
- 1 1/2 lbs of ground pork (can be half beef)
- 1 larger onion
- 1 heaping tsp Hungarian powdered paprika
- 2 slices of bacon (optional)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 lb of saurkraut, drained
- 1 tsp of salt or more
- 1/2 cup of canned tomatoes
- 4 slices thin cut Pork chops (you can prepare separate or in the soup) (optional)
- smoked meat like kielbasa, sausages (optional)
- few strings of fresh thyme (optional)
- 1 cup of uncooked rice
- 1 cup of water to cook the rice in
- 1-2 heads of large Savoy cabbage or green cabbage or sour cabbage leaves (about 18-20 leaves)
- oil,
- 4 garlic cloves,
- ground black pepper
- marjoram
- 2 tsp of Hungarian sweet paprika
- 2 eggs
- hot pepper to taste
- To serve: Sour cream
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Hot paprika or Erös Pista to taste
- Salt to taste
Preparation
twincitiesherbs.com
Meat stuffing
- The day before you make the dish, prepare the meat stock. You just put all the ingredients together, bring to a boil, turn down and slowly cook for 8 hours.
- Fill a larger pot with cold water and start boiling it. This will be used to soften the leaves. Omit if you have sour cabbage leaves.
- Cook the rice in the water. Just add enough water so it can cook but will not get soft. You are pre-cooking the rice here, it will continue cooking in the stuffing.
- While the rice is cooking, start preparing the base of the dish. Sauté some onion in some oil, add bacon if you desire and cook for 5-10 minute or until the onion looks nicely transulant and the bacon is crisp. Add paprika, stir and add a little cold liquid (have it ready) and stir. Add 1 lb of the sour kraut and mix. I also like to add some meat, sausages to the dish. It is especially nice to add some smoked meat.
- Prepare the stuffing. Mix all ingredients (the half cooked rice, sautéed onion, paprika, black pepper, garlic cloves, salt, marjoram, eggs and the meat) together.
- Take the leaves off the cabbage gently one by one. Put the leaves in the boiling water (from step 2) for 1 minute or until they are soft.
- Fill the cabbage leaves in the middle with about 1 heaping tablespoon of stuffing or more if leaf is bigger and fold them on all four sides so the stuffing is tucked inside the leaves nicely. Be careful you don’t fold them too tight because the mixture will expand a little. You can close the leaves with a toothpick if you want but it is really not necessary. This may sound like a difficult task but really what you do here is you tuck the filling inside the leaves and fold each side onto the stuffing so it is nested inside the leaves.
- You can just lay the stuffed leaves on the bottom of the pot one by one next to each other pot, place the rest of the sour-kraut on top of the stuffed cabbage.
- Pour the meat stock that you made the day before into the pot. Bring the whole dish to a boil and turn down and cook on very low heat slowly for 1 ½ hours.
- Meanwhile you can prepare the pork chops. I like to serve some meat on the side so people who like a lot of meat or prefer not to have the stuffed cabbage can have some meat. Brown pork chops on both sides and a little white wine, bay leaves, and spices. Cook for 1 hour.
- When done, take cabbages out one by one and place them on a serving plate. Then place the sour kraut mixture on the top and pour liquid over the dish. Serve the sour cream on top. Grind some fresh black pepper and add hot paprika to taste.
Merry Christmas! Enjoy! Jó étvágyat!
Text, photos, recipe by twincitiesherbs.com
Twin Cities Herbs 